%% Image kept on page per Image Pickin' thread: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1348082143001760100%% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread.%%[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/TheBatmanAdventures http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/JustShoot.JPG]]]][[caption-width-right:350:[[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold Where's the fun]] [[VillainSong in that?]]]]

-> '''One-Armed Man''': I've been looking for you for 8 months. Whenever I should have had a gun in my right hand, I thought of you. Now I find you in exactly the position that suits me. I had lots of time to learn to shoot with my left.-> ''Tuco kills him with the gun he has hidden in the foam of his bubble bath.''-> '''Tuco''': When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk.-->-- ''Film/TheGoodTheBadAndTheUgly''

Villains frequently find themselves in conundrums that could easily be solved by [[MundaneSolution finding the right person and shooting them]] but refrain from doing so.

There may or may not be some in-story justification for this failure to take the direct approach. The {{Doylist}} explanation will always boil down to the fact that if he ''did'' just shoot him, then the story would be much shorter and would end with [[TheBadGuyWins the bad guys winning]].

{{Subtrope}}s include:* BondVillainStupidity: The villain has the opportunity to kill the good guy, but leaves them alive anyway, sometimes for no adequately explained reason.* ComplexityAddiction: The villain ''does'' try to kill the hero, but employs some ridiculously elaborate (and thus easily-foiled) method, rather than just shooting them.* EvilGloating: Even when the villain intends to kill the hero in a straightforward fashion, they still feel the need to gloat about it immediately beforehand, thus giving the hero time to escape or fight back.* StatingTheSimpleSolution: Someone in the story [[LampshadeHanging points out]] that the above three options are stupid and that a simpler, more direct solution exists. The villain may or may not take their advice.